“Regardless, I love the opener in all of it’s drippy backlit band-walking-at-me glory. The band — and the text — really complement each other, and the frame.”

This proves anthony’s point. It is NOT a band, but the shot is so cliche that “band” is the instant read. It was for me, from your comment you also. I do like the shot though, but I am a fan of the Gracies.

kmci99

Indeed, pardon my error.
But my point was not that the shot wasn’t cliche, rather that so much of what is produced today is cliche — the ‘mopey portrait’ no less so than the walking ‘band’ shot.
I liked the opener, because it was well done (the layout/design/photo editing as much as, if not more so than the photo), despite being terribly cliche.